time to Replace?

[ScrewySqrl]

Haven't been here in a while, but its time to upgrade, I think

My PC is coming up on 3 years old now. Here's the specs:

i5-2400 @ 3.1 GHZ, currently 'overclocked' to 3.3Ghz (just a Bin click or two) on stock fan
AS Rock H61-VS motherboard
4 GB DDR3-1333 CAS 9
2x 500 GB HDD
HD 7870
Corsair CX 500 PSU
Rosewill R102 case w/ 2 120mm fans (1 front, 1 back) and 1 80mm fan (side)
Acer 22" 1680x1050 monitor


At 3 years old, I'm ready to replace it, but what would be a suggested build.

I was debating an AMD build to actually mess with real overclocking, because I don't see a haswell build being significant enough an improvement to spend the money. But AMD feels like it would be a lateral move as well, so I'm feeling a bit frustrated

 

[EarthDog]

Why are you ready to replace it? What part is too slow for your needs? I wouldn't go to AMD from this...

About the only thing I can see to upgrade is the GPU honestly.

 

[freakdiablo]

Well, the real question is, do you think you need to upgrade? No real reason to upgrade if it still gets the job done, right?

Then comes the next question, what do you plan on doing with it? Games, CAD work, multimedia stuff, etc.

Edit: damn, ED beat me to it

 

[ScrewySqrl]

I've ALWAYS rebuilt every 2-3 years, and usually the upgrade has been worth it. The drive for power efficiency has lead to haswell being only about 20% faster than Sandy Bridge, which is terrible.

least part of it is an itch to build something -- I haven't built a new computer in 3 years.

Mostly I will be gaming with it.

 

[EarthDog]

I just don't see a reason to upgrade the CPU at this time. I would grab a better GPU if it isn't cutting it and wait to see Intel's new processor line by the end of the year (I think). Perhaps you can save for something overclockable and higher spec'd as well.

 

[ScrewySqrl]

so, no one thinks there are any gains to be made on a 3 year old system? Wow. Something has gone seriously wrong with Moore's Law.

 

[TiZakit]

I'm kind of in the same boat. I looked at upgrading and decided that I wouldn't notice the performance difference.

I'll probably continue my trend up upgrading when memory changes. (DDR, DDR2, DDR3)

 

[Mandrake4565]

so, no one thinks there are any gains to be made on a 3 year old system? Wow. Something has gone seriously wrong with Moore's Law.

The issue is gains in what? Yes if you go to a newer Intel setup you will see performance gains, "in benchmarks" or if you do real work on the system like editing, CAD work etc. You said you use it for gaming, if you upgrade your Gpu that will most likely give you the best performance increase as stated above. Unless you're playing a really Cpu intensive game where you're running 90% constantly you're not going to see much difference going to a new Cpu. Hell I play BF4 on occasion on my 955Be and I don't see much difference playing on that rig then my 4770k, when using the same Gpu on both setups. Granted I'm not playing at really high resolutions nor with all the eye candy turned up.

 

[Puer Aeternus]

I concur w/ the above answers, upgrade your GPU and memory. If gaming is all you are going to do, you wont see much improvement w/ a new CPU....its not like it was 10/20 years ago when a new cpu gave you a significant boost in performance. A new GPU will give you a significant boost in games.
If you must upgrade, i'd wait until the next socket/gen cpu's come out. You will coast along happily until then.
Now this is the OC forums so we are almost all power uses here, If you have some mad cash laying around and want to up grade for the heck of it, I'd go Haswell as its the latest and WILL give you performance boost over the previous gen. I went haswell and did a lot of research before buying, I am quite happy my choice. I am out of the loop in regards to AMD CPU's.

 

[ScrewySqrl]

I concur w/ the above answers, upgrade your GPU and memory. If gaming is all you are going to do, you wont see much improvement w/ a new CPU....its not like it was 10/20 years ago when a new cpu gave you a significant boost in performance. A new GPU will give you a significant boost in games.
If you must upgrade, i'd wait until the next socket/gen cpu's come out. You will coast along happily until then.
Now this is the OC forums so we are almost all power uses here, If you have some mad cash laying around and want to up grade for the heck of it, I'd go Haswell as its the latest and WILL give you performance boost over the previous gen. I went haswell and did a lot of research before buying, I am quite happy my choice. I am out of the loop in regards to AMD CPU's.

Its not like it was just 3 years ago, when I jumped from a Core2Duo and HD 4850 to Sandy Bridge i5 and HD 6850 for considerable gains. Or 3 years before that when I jumped from a Single core AMD Sempron 3100 to the Core 2 Duo. The gain from i5-2400 to i5-4750K is only about 20-25%. I replaced the GPU a few months ago with a 7870, which gave me about a 10 FPS jump.

I wonder if any of the Socket 1150 Xeons would be enough gain to matter?

 

[EarthDog]

so, no one thinks there are any gains to be made on a 3 year old system? Wow. Something has gone seriously wrong with Moore's Law.

LOL, its not that as much as it is the bottleneck is not the CPU.

There is little to no difference between a Xeon and a 'regular' CPU. So that would be a bad idea as well.

GPU or GPU + Memory is all you really need.